With their postseason picture already decided, the Durant basketball teams closed out the regular slate last week by splitting District 5A-4 contests with Coweta.
The Lady Lions pushed the district champion Lady Tigers before falling 41-36 to snap their six-game winning streak, ending the regular season with a 16-6 record.
Durant’s boys, meanwhile, forged a 47-43 triumph to head into the playoffs on a two-game winning streak as they closed the regular slate at 9-13.
Coach Tony Robinson’s girls squad was slated to open their home regional on Tuesday against a three-win Guthrie squad with an expected victory pitting them against the Bishop Kelley-Tahlequah winner in the regional championship at 3:30 Friday afternoon inside the DHS Gymnasium.
Girls
It was a neck-and-neck battle for three quarters with the Lady Lions giving the 21-1 Lady Tigers all they wanted.
The game was knotted at 7-7 through one frame and Durant nosed in front 16-14 at intermission thanks to three pointers from Anslee Morse and Emma Green.
Coweta squeezed out a 9-8 advantage in the third period to narrow the gap to just one point in the low-scoring battle. The visitors however caught fire in the fourth stanza, pumping in 18 points while Durant managed just 12 in spite of treys from Morse and Iyana Wilson.
Morse sank a trio of three pointers in the contest and was the lone Lady Lion in double figures with 11 points.
Wilson tallied five points in the final quarter to finish with eight, tying Abrianna Freeman for team-high scoring honors. Ella Sorrels contributed four, Green had three with Struble adding two.
Boys
Junior Tashaun Williams poured in 12 points in the second period to fuel a 16-5 Durant scoring flurry which ultimately gave the Lions the lead for good.
Durant trailed 7-3 through one stanza before going in front 19-12 at the half. Coweta closed within 26-20 after three frames.
Callaway Nabors came through down the stretch, pouring in nine points in the fourth while Kolton Mason and Ryder Jones chipped in five each as they held off the Tigers down the stretch. A pair of Jones charity tosses with 9.2 seconds remaining helped ice it.
Williams posted 15 points as the Durant offensive catalyst. Nabors pitched in 10 with Jones just shy of double digits at nine.
Mason tossed in five and Carson Robinson had two points.
